Our collective strength and the resurrection

“We’re taking our race back today,” said Boston Marathon race director Dave McGillivary just prior to the start of last Monday’s marathon. It’s a sentiment summed up in a now familiar phrase: “Boston Strong;” a defiant rallying cry for a city on a mission in the wake of last year’s terrorist attack. That rallying cry hit the streets this week, the day after Easter Sunday, when nearly 36,000 runners, the second-largest field in Boston Marathon history, took off from the starting line as an incarnate sign of what Christians celebrate in the 50-day season of Easter: Resurrection.

Easter invites us to notice the signs of resurrection not only this week, but also in the immediate aftermath of the explosives set off by the Tsarnaev brothers. According to Boston Globe columnist, Kevin Cullen: “What happened last year on Boylston Street was terrible. People were killed and maimed, bodies and souls grievously injured. And yet when the sounds of the bombs faded, when the smoke lifted, what followed was beautiful, more powerful than a bomb. Police officers, firefighters, EMTs, and paramedics and ordinary people ran headlong to help the wounded, without any regard for their own well-being. They tied off legs. They comforted the traumatized. They moved 90 seriously injured people in less than a half hour … More than one was brought back from the dead.”

In the Gospel of John we are told that the first Easter began in darkness. The first Easter began amidst grief, heartache and confusion, and in the midst of the darkness came resurrection. In the midst of the darkness, came a bright light. “The light shines in the darkness,” John assures us, “and the darkness cannot overcome it.” Easter teaches us that resurrection happens not despite suffering but in the midst of suffering. It teaches us that it’s not just about Jesus Christ rising from the dead, but how God works in the world and how we can participate in that work as God’s people; how we can be agents of the resurrection in our daily lives.

The first followers of Jesus were cowering in fear when he was crucified, but found new courage after the resurrection. They continued on at great risk to themselves and ultimately succeeded in spreading their faith across the known world. One might conclude that the most noticeable miracle of that first Easter day was the miracle of changed hearts and minds in these faithful people; a movement from darkness to light.

When the sounds of the bombs faded on Boylston Street at last year’s Boston Marathon, a resurrection began. It began when people responded in the darkness to help shine a bright light on those in need of God’s help. It began when hearts and minds were directed towards the light by making room for God to make all things new. “What followed” as Cullen rightly points out, “was beautiful, more powerful than a bomb.” This week’s marathon was a celebration of that resurrection.

Page 2 of 2 - Christians are to be bearers of this Easter faith. We’re called to gather to celebrate this continually unfolding story of God and to place our lives and the world in which we live in the context of Easter. We’re called to live our lives in hope that just as God raised Jesus to new life, we too might live our lives from this same sense of possibility and promise. We’re called to believe that death does not have the last word because God is making all things new. May we, in this new Easter season, know in a very real and personal way that with God all things are possible. May we trust that “the light shines in the darkness and the darkness cannot overcome it.”

The Rev. Adam J. Shoemaker is Rector of the Episcopal Church of the Holy Comforter in Burlington. He can be reached at ashoemaker@hc-b.org